This exhibition ‘Distorted Landscape’ presents a new body of work in which Ariella Friend further explores her relationship to nature in a digital world. Having never visited Tamworth, Friend’s interpretation of the local flora and natural landscapes is based on her text based prompts and image searches on the internet. This research has culminated in ‘expanded paintings’ that are inspired by the local trees, flowers and waterways of Tamworth yet feel strangely unfamiliar. “By zooming in and out of digital imagery I reduce the landscape into a series of pixels and colour blocks that are then interpreted into abstract, sculptural works”.
By combining layers of found, imperfect timber that have been cut and sanded to size by the artist, with a nature inspired colour palette this new body of work further explores Friend’s interest in materiality and the process of making.
Just like the Italian Arte Povera Movement from the late 1960s to 1970s whose artists explored a range of unconventional processes and combined them with every day materials,‘ ‘Distorted Landscape’ reflects Friend’s playful and experimental approach to non objective art making while challenging the viewers’ perception of what a landscape painting could be.
